Her majesty's spymaster: Elizabeth I, Sir Francis Walsingham, and the birth of modern espionage

Sir Francis Walsingham was officially Queen Elizabeth’s Secretary of the Privy Council, but was in fact, her spymaster. Walsingham launched his own secret campaigns against the Queen’s enemies; most notably her rival, Mary Queen of Scots. He developed covert operations to thwart Catholic Spain and France that remain staples of international espionage.